Youth and Modernity, c.1880-1970

This course examines the ways in which youth and shifting concepts associated with it (such as childhood, adolescence and the phenomenon of the teenager) has been interpreted and experienced in the twentieth century. The course focuses primarily on Britain but also explores the wider global contexts of empire and decolonisation, migration, war in Europe and americanisation; the British experience is compared and contrasted with that of other locations. Although a significant proportion of the western population has consisted of those under 21, the study of childhood and youth has often been regarded as a marginal area of social history. Over the last 20 years, however, historians have produced a wealth of research which demonstrates that the idea of childhood was crucial to the development of modern welfare states and to modern concepts of identity, sexuality and selfhood. Furthermore, children and young people have been reclaimed as historical actors and even agents of change. The twentieth century has been labelled ‘the century of the child’ in that recognition of children’s specific needs, rights and developments has been a central component of both official and unofficial discourse. However, a preoccupation with the ‘adolescent’ or ‘teenager’ as an object of social concern, anxiety and moral panic has also been apparent. As well as examining and unpacking this anxiety, we will consider debates relating to youth culture, resistance and agency. We will consider, throughout, the ways in which ideas about class, gender, race and age have structured adult interventions and youthful experience. The role of the law, medicine, religion and education will be explored at various points. We will also assess the problem of ‘finding’ the ‘real’ child in the archive because his/her traces are so often transitory. Extensive use will be made of a wide variety of primary sources (visual and textual) including film and other visual images, official reports and files, newspapers, magazines and personal testimonies. Topics covered include the discovery of adolescence; health, welfare and psychology; leisure and popular culture; evacuation and the disruption of wartime; juvenile delinquency, the teenager and youth subculture.   Credit Level: 10 Year taken: Year 3 Undergraduate